While doctors and researchers across the globe try to get a better understanding of COVID-19, they have been able to find some patterns in the data available to them. Now, experts from the University College London (UCL), the UCL Hospitals NHS Trust, and the University of Cambridge are using it to give people an understanding of how likely they are to die from COVID-19 if they were to contract it.
They created an online calculator at OurRisk.CoV that takes a person's age, sex and specific underlying health conditions like diabetes, obesity, heart disease or kidney issues, and assesses their chances of passing away from coronavirus.
The researchers used statistics from health records of over 3.8 million people in England and determined 20% of the country's population is at high risk. Dr. Amitava Banerjee was in charge of the study and told The Sun, "Older people, those with one or more underlying conditions and their carers are asking what easing the lockdown might mean for their health. Using data modeling on a number of different scenarios, our findings show the mortality risk for these vulnerable groups increases significantly, and could lead to thousands of avoidable deaths."
Their findings, which are published in the journal The Lancet, show that if lockdown restrictions are eased, the number of deaths will be significantly higher. The researchers hope their online calculator brings awareness to that and lets residents know how high their risk level is so they know how careful they should be if more places open in the coming weeks and months.
Tragically, more than 300,000 people globally have died from coronavirus.
Photo: Getty Images